Thesis and Dissertation Formatting

You've decided to write an honors thesis or dissertation. Congratulations!

Many people are intimidated by the process of writing, editing, and defending a long paper. We in University Technology are here to make the formatting part of the process as stress-free as possible!

You will find links to documentation we find useful below, as well as a few suggestions. Please contact the University Technology Service Center at 973-408-4357 with additional questions, or to schedule an appointment with the Student Lab for more assistance.

Backing Up Documents

The most important habit of all is backing up your thesis or dissertation as you write.

Back up your files in multiple places.  This means storing a copy on the hard drive of your computer, on your Drew Network F: drive, on a "cloud" drive, and on an external piece of hardware such as a USB Flash drive or external hard drive. When you have saved changes to your thesis, save the changed document to all of the backup locations with the same name. It is extra work to create the backups, but it will save you a great deal of time should one file get lost or corrupted!

Directions for accessing the F: Drive

Directions for using Google Drive

A non-Drew method for backing up your documents and accessing them anywhere is the website Dropbox. Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, documents, and videos anywhere and share them easily.  This is done by syncing work to the site's cloud drive allowing for easy access across multiple devices (mobile, web, and desktop). 

Starting to Write

One question you should ask your adviser before you start to write is whether s/he will want to see Word document or PDF files of specific sections of your thesis or dissertation throughout the process.

• If the preference is to see a PDF of specific sections, see below on using PDF-XChange Editor. You can work in one long document in Word, but be sure to back up your work constantly!
• If the preference is to be sent a Word document for different sections, we suggest saving a different file for each chapter. 
  • This means more files for you to manage, but will make formatting easier. It also helps protect you against losing all of your work in one fell swoop if you do not back up to multiple locations.

We provide templates to use in Microsoft Word with built-in formatting styles. To download these templates and get more information on using them and the styles we've added, please see Drew Dissertation Information and Using Microsoft Word Templates.

• It is important to know that you must start working from this template before typing any text.

Specific Formatting Challenges

Page Numbering

Word has built-in functionality that allows you to create a "different first page", so that you can have a page number bottom center on the first page and top right on the following pages. 

Having a different first page in each chapter can be done either by saving different files for each chapter, or by using section breaks. Please contact the University Technology Service Center at 973-408-4357 with any questions about these options.

Microsoft provides the following information on page numbers:

• Word 2007: Start page numbering on page 2 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/start-page-numbering-on-page-2-HP001227657.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2010: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/add-or-remove-headers-footers-and-page-numbers-HA010372690.aspx?CTT=1
  • If you use different sections in a single document, this page may be useful: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/number-pages-differently-in-different-sections-HA101832542.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2011: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/mac-word-help/add-or-remove-page-numbers-HA102928583.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2013: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/add-page-numbers-HA102809692.aspx?CTT=1

Table of Contents

Word has a feature which will use heading styles from your document to automatically create a Table of Contents.

The instructions below are written assuming you are using one of our dissertation templates. We recommend you use the Chapter Title style for each chapter, to ensure proper formatting. You can then tell Word to look for that style when identifying what should be included in your Table of Contents.

1. Place your cursor where you would like your Table of Contents to appear
2. Click on the References tab
3. Click Table of Contents
4. Click Insert Table of Contents... (near the bottom of the menu)
5. Click the Options... button
6. In the list of Available Styles, find Chapter Title and type a 1 in the box to the right (under TOC level)
7. Click OK
8. Click OK again

If you are not using our templates, but are using Heading styles to mark your chapter titles, you can refer to the following information from Microsoft Office support to generate a Table of Contents.

Self-paced courses:

• Word 2007: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/table-of-contents-i-create-an-automatic-toc-RZ010261698.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2010: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/create-and-customize-a-table-of-contents-RZ102634105.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2013: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/video-introduction-to-tables-of-contents-VA104034697.aspx?CTT=5

Articles:

• Word 2007: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/create-a-table-of-contents-or-update-a-table-of-contents-HP001225372.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2010: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/create-a-table-of-contents-or-update-a-table-of-contents-HP010368778.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2011: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/mac-word-help/create-or-edit-a-table-of-contents-HA102929533.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2013: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/format-or-customize-a-table-of-contents-HA102809789.aspx?CTT=1

Footnotes

You can watch videos or download entire courses about working with footnotes in Word here:

• Word 2010: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/video-footnote-and-endnote-numbering-VA102447796.aspx?CTT=1 
• Word 2011: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/mac-word-help/training-working-with-citations-sources-and-bibliographies-RZ103796348.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA103525723
• Word 2013: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/footnotes-in-word-2013-RZ104168662.aspx?CTT=1

Articles with instructions can be found at the following links:

• Word 2010: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/insert-or-create-footnotes-and-endnotes-HA101854833.aspx?CTT=1
  • These instructions also apply to Word 2007
• Word 2011: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/mac-word-help/add-or-change-footnotes-or-endnotes-HA102929529.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2013: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/add-footnotes-and-endnotes-HA102809783.aspx?CTT=1

Section Breaks

If you are saving your entire thesis or dissertation as one document, you will need to use section or page breaks to allow you to format the first page of each chapter properly. Information about this feature can be found at the following links:

• Word 2007: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/insert-a-section-break-HA010031073.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2010: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/insert-a-section-break-HA010368780.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2011: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/mac-word-help/insert-delete-or-change-a-section-break-HA102929536.aspx?CTT=1
• Word 2013: Page numbering with section breaks http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/start-page-numbering-later-in-your-document-HA102841427.aspx?CTT=1

Note: You will want to use "Next Page" section breaks between chapters.

You can follow the instructions at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/number-pages-differently-in-different-sections-HA101832542.aspx?CTT=1 to number the pages for each section of the document. Remember to use the "different first page" option!

Miscellaneous Tips

• Use the template provided, with built-in styles
• Be cautious copying and pasting text in Word, even from one Word document to another
• Watch your white space: What you see as empty Word may see as information
  • To start a new page, use the Insert>Blank Page option (or CTRL+ENTER on the keyboard) rather than simply hitting Enter until you reach the page you want
• Remember to save constantly as you work, and to save copies of the updated file(s) to all of your backup locations after each time of working on your document
• Don't worry about page numbers until you are mostly finished writing 

Using PDF-XChange Editor

PDF-XChange Editor is a software that allows you to work with PDF files. For your purposes here, you can use it to pull certain pages out of a larger PDF file to share with your adviser, or you can use it to merge multiple PDF files into one file for submission.

The program will work with files already saved as PDFs, as well as with image, .txt, or .rtf files.

• Please keep in mind that you will need to save a Word document as a PDF file before editing it in PDF-XChange Editor.
• Most programs will give you the option to either "Save as PDF" or "Print to PDF". Consult the Help menu of the software you are working in for more information.

PDF-XChange Editor can be accessed via CloudPC (http://cloudpc.drew.edu). This is currently version 3.

• For instructions on using CloudPC, please visit Using CloudPC
• You can find the PDF-XChange Editor program in the Office Applications folder 

Staff or faculty on campus can also install the program on networked Windows computers. Read more at Installing PDF-XChange Editor (this page is only visible to employees logged in to their Drew accounts).

Jump to:

Merging Existing Files into a Single PDF

1. Make sure any files you wish to merge are saved as PDF files
2. In PDF-XChange Editor, go to File > New Document > Combine Files into a Single PDF...
3. In the window that comes up, click Add files...
   1. If you are working in CloudPC, be sure to give the program access to your local files (the question is different depending on your operating system - check Using CloudPC for more information).
4. Navigate to the files you wish to combine and click Open
   1. "My Documents" looks at your network F: drive
   2. Drives on your local computer (including your hard drive or a thumb drive) will be displayed with the drive letter and the computer name (for example, a thumb drive may be displayed as "E on COMPUTER-NAME")
   3. You can select multiple files at once by holding down the CTRL button and highlighting each file
   4. You can also open a file or files from one folder, click Open, and then click Add files... again to find additional files
5. After you have all of the files you want to combine listed, you can highlight individual files and use the arrow buttons at the bottom right to adjust the order
6. When you have the files in the order you want, click OK to create your merged document
7. Click File > Save As... to choose a name and location for your newly created PDF
   1. Please remember that "Desktop" in CloudPC refers to the desktop of the virtual machine, not the desktop of the computer you are physically working on

Extracting Pages to a New PDF file

1. With your file open in PDF-XChange Editor, go to Document > Extract Pages...
2. Select the radio button to the left of "Pages:" and enter the page numbers you wish to extract in the field to the right of "Pages:"
   1. For example, if you wish to extract chapter one, which is on pages 4-9 of your PDF file, you would type 4-9 in the box
   2. If you wish to extract multiple sections, such as chapters one (pages 4-9) and three (pages 13-16), you can type 4-9, 13-16 in the box
3. You will most likely ignore the "Actions with Objects" section
4. In the "Output Options" section, the default is set to "View New Document After Creation"
5. Click OK.
6. Make sure you extracted the pages you wanted. Click File > Save As... to choose a name and location for your newly created PDF.
   1. Please remember that "Desktop" in CloudPC refers to the desktop of the virtual machine, not the desktop of the computer you are physically working on

Creating an OCR PDF file

1. With your file open in PDF-XChange Editor, go to Document > OCR Pages...
2. If necessary, change the selection for what pages to convert. The default is All.
3. If desired, change the Primary Language (options are English, German, French, Spanish).
4. We recommend setting the Accuracy to High. If file size is a concern, you can try a lower accuracy setting.
5. Change the Output Type to "Create New Searchable PDF".
6. Click OK.
7. The processing time depends on the size of your file. When complete, click File > Save As... to choose a name and location for your newly created PDF.

Creating a Fillable PDF Form

These features will work in version 8 of PDF-XChange Editor. If working in CloudPC, you will not currently have these options.

Many people will create a form in a program like Word, then save it as a PDF and open it in PDF-XChange Editor to add the fields.

1. With your file open in PDF-XChange Editor, go to the Form tab on the ribbon.
   
2. Use the appropriate Form Fields options to add your desired fields.
   
   
3. You can rename a field by right clicking on the field and choosing Rename Field....
4. Click on a field to resize or re-position it.